Nation's Report Card Shows Reading Levels of High School Seniors Are Worse Than 20 Years Ago

If there was such a thing as collective parenting for the entire nation, high school seniors across the country would be spending their Thanksgiving breaks holed up in their rooms, grounded and sentenced to literature.

"Don't even think about the car keys, until you've finished 'The Catcher in the Rye,' " would be the collective mantra of Mom and Dad of America.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, referred to as the Nation's Report Card, tested 52,000 students in reading and 49,000 in math across 1,670 school districts in 2009, according to a release from the National Center for Education Statistics. And though 12th graders have made some improvement in reading, the scores are worse than they were in 1992.

Despite a teen literary devotion to the Harry Potter and Twilight series, only 38 percent of 12th graders are classified as at or above the "proficient" level, the release reports.

Students scored an average of 288 out of 500 points in reading comprehension, two points above the 2005 score, but still below the 1992 average of 292. Thirty-eight percent of 12th grade students were classified as at or above the "proficient" level, while 74 percent were considered at or above "basic," according to the release.

"Today's report suggests that high school seniors' achievement in reading and math isn't rising fast enough to prepare them to succeed in college and careers," U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says in a separate statement.

President Barack Obama has set a goal that the United States once again will have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by the end of the decade, Duncan adds in the statement. In a separate survey that accompanied the NAEP test, 86 percent of seniors said they expect to graduate college, Duncan says in the statement.

"They'll only succeed if we challenge and support them to raise their academic performance and offer them the financial support they need to pay for college," she adds.

Duncan says the government is taking steps to meet these goals, which include providing $40 billion over the next decade in grants for disadvantaged students and supporting states as they work together to raise standards to match college and career expectations.

The good news: Math scores rose from 150 to 153 between 2005 and 2009, according to the report.

The scores released Nov. 18 also show that a stubborn achievement gap remains across racial and ethnic groups, according to an article in Salon.com. There was no significant change in the score or gap in reading for black and Hispanic students since 1992. White and Asian students both scored higher than they did in 2005.

Asian students scored an average of 298 points in reading in 2009, higher than any other group. It was the first time since at least 1992 that a minority group outperformed white students on the test, according to Salon.com.

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Kids are spending so much time (even from very young ages) texting and chatting it up with peers instead of more conversations with adults that used to take place. This no doubt affects their reading levels. Plus the games they play don't help much either. Try Http://bit.ly/FreebieHomepage for some free stuff and ideas, including some educational games that may help.

Thank you mr reagan for dumbing down America. you achieved your wildest dreams to dumb down America and with the help of both bush's and the republicon party you turned what was once a great nation into a banana republic. You turned America into a 3rd world country. I hope mr reagan you are burning in hell for your sins against humanity.

Every time I see a commercial from the teacher's union stating that our students are doing so well thanks to the efforts of teachers, I see red. Student iare not taught common grammar, much less math problems. Too much work for the teacher to correct "me and him".The majority of teachers in the field are dedicated and care about their students but too many took up the vocation for the hours and the benefits. And tenure is the biggest crime against education. I would love to see their reaction if nurses had tenure regardless of their competence.

Teachers take up the profession for the hours and benefits? Please, you don't know what goes into being a teacher. The hours of class room preparation, grading papers, being counciler to childen with behavior problems. I could go on and on, most teachers don't take summer off, since they have second jobs or must go to school to keep current.

I doubt very seriously that a large portion of teachers are updating their credentials unless it is to further their careers in terms of compensation in grade or advancement to higher grade. There's nothing wrong with that, but in other professions it's done at night and on weekends.

You can thank administration, NOT teachers, for the lack of grammar being taught in schools these days. Every principal believes in "holistic' learning now, and grammar is 'too tough' for students to remember. This is not the belief of most teachers, though. My colleagues and I fight everyday to put grammar back in the classroom, and they never hear us out.

And to your comments about only entering this field for the hours and benefits...you must not know any teachers. I work AT LEAST 5 extra hours when I get home EACH NIGHT! This is not your average 9-5 job where when you go home, you're done for the day. Between grading papers and planning for the next day, week, etc... I easily put in a 14hr day!! Not as glamorous as you thought, huh? Oh, and our summers that we have off? Guess what? We still have work to do over the summer as well. I know...it is a cake job.

And we pay for benefits.

Please speak to an actual teacher before you make ignorant comments like that...

If blame must be placed, then point the finger at all of us. We failed to put education at the top of our priorities for our nation! We allowed this to happen while the rest of the industrialized world cared more about its young than we do. Now we turn our envy and hate on teachers? God help us all!

Bill Hurdle: In order to keep our teachers' certificate in force, there is a manatory amount of education that we have to complete. We are responsible for the cost of this education. It usually costs about $400 dollars for ONE 3 credit class. Unless you are still living with mommy and daddy, or you are married to an engineer, you can hardly afford the education to keep your certificate in force, let alone the education that can push you up the career ladder. And 3/4 of the manditory hours that are required here in Arizona, goes towards teaching the teachers how to best teach children who don't speak English. For over five years, I have taken classes that teach me the same thing over and over and over again. I attend months in classes that teach me what I can teach you in one sentence: When teaching non English learners, use a lot of facial expression, a lot of hand gestures, and spend a whole day explaining to the kids a piece of information that should only take 5 minutes to teach. This creates two problems for the classroom teacher. If they take hours to teach a concept, the teachers are unable to cover the information that is required of them to be covered during the year. Also, when a teacher spends so much time on such a simple concept, the English speakers become terribly bored and that can turn into behavioral issues.

So Bill, the next time you take classes to help you move up the pay scale, which you may or may not have to pay for (some companies pay for their employees to further their education), think of the teachers who have to pay the big bucks out of their own pocket just to keep their teaching certificate in force. One last thing. The pay for a teacher with a Masters' degree (6 years), was the same as an engineer with an AA degree (2 years). Teachers don't become teachers for the salary or the "time off". If you took a "real" interest in the educational system you might understand these things.

To Bill: In the state of Ohio, in order to renew your teaching license you must take additional college classes or participate in approved workshops. If you do not, you do not renew. Also, you must have a master's degree within a certain number of years of starting your teaching career, unless you were "grandfathered" into the program. Some schools pay for teacher's professional development, but most do not or only pay in part. My husband recently took a $1400 astrophysics class, and guess who paid for it.

tell the un informed how hard you work , i've had 3 teachers in my family even they laugh at the common i work so hard line that other teachers spew, they did and do take their summer off, they do not spend their evenings or weekends doing work off the clock for free, thats against the rules of the union, you work for free off the clock off school property you are a fool, so dont cry about it,,lol

This comment is a TOTAL lack of understanding. The parents need to ensure that the kids do their school work rather than spend every waking moment with their ipod games and TV!!!! The lack of reading is because they only CAN READ the quick e-Mail with the "let's move on" concept. Afterall, the teachers are only with the youngsters from 8-3 on M-F. Perhaps reading before bedtime would be better than merely going to sleep following "Dancing With the Stars" viewings.

Today's parents allow their kids to bypass what was once a staple of American society. If you child is illiterate when they finish high school, particularly given the fact that teacher's unions now place more emphasis on the electoral process to keep their benefits flowing than your child's education, how do you change it? Our public education system is the laughing stock of every developed nation in the world, thanks to the incompetence and lack of dedication from public school ADMINISTRATORS, as well as TEACHERS.

Well it's no wonder with texting "english" taking over from REAL english!!!People are obsessed with spelling stuff wrong, and when I had a jewelry business I would make bookmarks as a little small ticket item, and they never sold (this is within the last 5 years)... Why you ask???I would pitch the bookmarks to the teens and young adults, and they would look me dead in the eye and say, "NO THANKS, I DON'T READ!!!!!And they were PROUD OF IT!!!!

No wonder we are becoming a nation of morons! If they can't get it texting, on Netflix, or Hulu, it's not worth doing!!!

We keep "dumbing down" to accommodate "diversity." I am not a teacher but I can empathize. Back in the late 60's middle school teacher friends were faced with integrating classrooms. They had to elect dropping algebra in favor of all students taking general math so no classroom would be "segregated." Today, in Lee County FL teachers have to deal with students who speak 173 different languages. How can any student or teacher "achieve?" Japan is the leader among nations. But, aside from classes teaching English, because it's the international language of business, all other classes are taught in Japanese. Makes a big difference.

Regina--I hope you're not a teacher! "Councilor?" Where did you learn to spell? I had a High School ENGLISH teacher who spelled "no one" as "noone." Teachers have a tough job, but are very well paid and usually have excellent retirement benefits, which is why so many retire early and we are left with the newbies.....

It's not that Asian's are smarter; it's that their parents are more involved and demand excellent work. If they don't get it the children get no privileges (no cell phone, car, dating, etc). They also demand that they speak proper English, dress properly, and all the other things a good parent should do. They also don't make excuses that they don't have time because they both work (most do) or that they are single parents. When the parents of other students (white, black, what have you) allow them to talk like the rappers and wear pants down around their knees that indicates to me a parent(s) that doesn't care. If you can't talk properly how do you expect them to read properly? If they are constantly on the cell or computer talking to friends how can they study and do their homework? If they are out on the streets to all hours same thing. The parents need to be more involved and stricter. The teachers need to be graded somehow and the bad ones let go. The teachers also need to be able to reasonably discipline children without the parent getting upset with them. In my school days no matter what the teacher did to me (which included paddling) it was nothing compared to what happened to me when my father found out (who by the way was a single parent).